define "run the clock"

I'm trying out the multiplayer- I'm nearly finished with single player- and I keep encountering races which tell me to drive somewhere and "run the clock".  I have no clue what this means, unless maybe it means to do donuts or drift in a circle, but if so, why not just say so?  Why do they call drafting streamlining, for that matter?  After God knows how many games, why have they suddenly changed the terminology here?  Can we at least have that much consistency?